Remember as you read this that sexiness was not frowned upon during this era, which was right after Women’s Lib and the Sexual Revolution, but long before anyone had to be concerned with cyber-spies or the #MeToo movement.
A time when a girl from the farmlands of Virginia, severely lacking in resources, is able to transform into a global champion, literally redefining herself as an Icon and embodying the never ending conflict between sport, fashion, and art. This was also an era where culture was dominated by him, having no regard for hearing out any of these concerns.
Over the course of last week, world-renowned surfing journalist Chas Smith released his documentary film called Trouble: The Lisa Andersen Story at the Florida Surf Film Festival’s quarterly screenings in New Smyrna Beach and Jacksonville. It was a sight to behold, given it happened in the same place where Lisa got her first taste of the sport after moving with her family to Ormond Beach, which is between New Smyrna Beach and Jacksonville. Right from the start, Lisa’s father, who was an alcoholic, alongside her mother who was rather strict opposed to her passion for surfing. But beneath the acrid pot clouds a whiff of innocence permeated the air. In the early 1980s, the term ‘Florida’ alongside ‘surfer’ meant stereotypical stoner. While they weren’t entirely wrong, there was indeed a layer or two of innocent charm knit within the resorts. It was the golden age where a person could indulge in the freedom of imagination alongside fighting and respecting rebellious individualism. During these decades, a tomboy could change into a sex symbol at the simple snap of a layback or even removing a towel.
As a teenager, Lisa earned the nickname ‘Trouble’ because of her early use of drugs and alcohol, which followed her everywhere like a shadow. From getting in trouble at home, school, and even running into trouble with the law trouble seemed to be the only constant in her life. While most children her age spoke about living their life freely, Lisa was put on house arrest after going to juvenile detention. Things were looking bleak for her until she balanced the hope of bail what the state had to offer. While most people say home court advantage, she believed in the phrase go pro, manifest destiny. At the age of 16, she wrote a letter to her mother, which she regrets to this day because she went off on a tangent at the start of “One day, I’m going to be #1.”
Not only did Lisa have to adapt to the competition of adult surfing, but she also had to learn how the adult world worked, which is why she now feels vulnerable and strapped. She came from a life of rough poverty and associated with anyone that would let her spend the night and buy her food. In search of sponsorship from surf companies, she wrote letter after letter with no response. Thus, with the combination of sexism, and her desperation to borrow surf equipment, she was subject to harsh rebuttals.
Lisa tears up in some interviews for Trouble, but this is not one of them. Old camcorder footage tells only so much. Not many tears are shed for the man called ‘Ray’, and Lisa’s description of the incident is presented in such an unemotional yet courageous manner. While everything is settled, the director goes ahead and adds some unsettling animations to depict her actual escape.
To assist with the persuasion of the audience, Trouble swiftly sets the same rhythm as Lisa’s journey to fame. She turned professional after merely a year as an amateur first, as a novice under the tough supervision of Craig Come, then under the undemonstrative intellectual spell of her first great love Dave Parmenter who was able to furnish a well-adjusted and supportive home, and subsequently, while molding her natural talent into a competitive weapon; and finally, in the semisecret-and-then-totally-shocking romance with ASP Chief Judge Renato Hickel, who exuded charm. Strangely though, as her loftiest ambition was within reach, Lisa found out she was pregnant for the first time and was actually able to resist following her basic instincts. “I had run away from so many things in my life,” she explains, “I was not going to run away from this.”
Her daughter, Erica, was born on August 1, 1993, and Lisa was back at competitions two weeks afterward. She retained her title and subsequently claimed as the World Champion the following year, and the three subsequent years; every contest was completed with a toddler in tow.
Despite the emotional distress, when you analyze how few athletes actually return to full form after such severe medical trauma, which is usually irreversible combined with how rare it is for CT surfers to have kids during their careers Lisa’s winning streak was just on a different level. Women’s surfing is filled with inspirational stories but none of them come close to comparing to Lisa Andersen’s, not even the one about a woman who comes back after losing an arm from a shark attack.
We see Lisa undergo lots of emotional shifts as Smith captures the last stage of Lisa’s battle with free-framing montage as she attempts to explain how Erica skillfully wrapped all the distractions and fed it to her mother in the form of a championship.
Lisa’s attention grabbing hyper image is what propelled Roxy into the multi-million dollar women’s surf wear empire, and Smith conveniently skips over all the minute details in Trouble. It’s all about the triumph of the human spirit, not the thousands of consumers who benefited. Smith had to address sensitive topics in a compact forty minutes and had no space to infuse depth irony which he is renowned for, but still managed to conduct the full spectrum with incredible maturity and class.
Lacking, in terms of achievability, Trouble does not have a particularly stunning free surfing segment. Nonetheless, the home videos and old asp footage do help alleviate that. Considering how there were some solid female pros during this time, a few clips of her competitors would have been nice too. It is hard to believe that Jodie Cooper came out as a Lesbian to a highly Homophobic audience while Wendy Botha posed for an Australian Playboy as a professional athlete. It was such a vindictive time in sports history. The women Lisa surrounded herself with were such bagasse’s and, astonishingly, Lisa beat them all.
The latter half of the 90’s was marked by Lisa Andersen selling more clothes through her feminine beauty than her masculinity. Anderson Surfs Better Than You cover shot helped with bridging the gender gap and made her look so much more appealing. This woman was a champion runaway and a complete delinquent who was the least likely to succeed business wise and did so well, she truly made every do so much worse.
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